Indonesian Youth Football Gets A Hand From PSG

The Ligue 1 club is set to open a youth football academy in partnership with Indonesian club Bali United. The move deepens PSG’s ties with tyre tycoon and Bali United owner Pieter Tanuri. In May this year, Achilles-Corsa, an Indonesian tyre brand from Multistrada Arah Sarana (a company owned by Pieter Tanuri) scored a four-year partnership with PSG.

The academy will be open to players aged 6 to 19-years-old and will offer training in line with the PSG curriculum. There will also be an exchange programme on training skills and methodology between both clubs through the Parisian club’s youth development academy.

“We share the same philosophy [as PSG]. We share same knowledge, we adapted to the same style and PSG Academy is open to everyone who wants to play the PSG way,” PSG Academy head coach Benjamin Houri told Bali United TV.

The travails of Indonesian football has been well-documented in recent years e.g., dramatic unrest in the country’s domestic football league, and the national team being banned by FIFA for almost a year due to government interference in the beautiful game. Having French expertise to help develop Bali’s grassroots football scene is a laudable coup and would further improve the performance of age-group club teams in international tournaments such as the Gothia Cup, however, it’s pointless to have a lively youth system when mismanagement is rife in Indonesia’s professional football ecosystem.